Marketing in a Digital World

As a Microsoft marketer, I’ve seen the digital landscape shift and change monumentally over the past several years, particularly in the B2B space. With the proliferation of smartphones, online resources and social media, customers are empowered with more information and access than ever before.

According to CEB, 57% of B2B purchase evaluation is done without speaking to a human – and this number is likely to grow given the changing workforce demographic, which is shifting over time to include more and more digital natives. 

So what does this mean for the channel? It means that customers and prospects are either finding your brand (and finding it relevant to follow up with) or, in the worst case scenario, they're not finding you at all. 

In Canada in particular, digital marketing gives us access to be able to scale our messages broadly. Canadians are highly engaged on digital -- in fact, according to ComScore, we are one of the most digitally engaged populations on the planet:

Almost 28 million Canadians can be reached online from a desktop/laptop device. 25 million are reached online by desktop videos - and importantly, more than 15 million Canadians are accessing digital information on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.  

To effectively target your slice of that market - to find customers and be found by them, you need to have a solid owned, earned and paid digital media strategy. This is why we've launched our Partner Digital Marketing Webinar Series to help empower the channel to drive impact in digital marketing efforts. If you are getting started on digital – or looking to scale and deepen your digital lead gen strategy, join the series to hear from Microsoft and Industry experts with deep domain expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), blogging, search engine marketing, social media and more.

Roisin Bonner
Social Media Lead